Cardinals players join in mourning during memorial for Hancock

TUPELO, Miss. – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Randy Flores will miss playing catch with Josh Hancock.\n“Every day, I was reminded of his heart,” Flores said Thursday at a public memorial for his fellow reliever.\nThe Cardinals were among an estimated 500 mourners for Hancock, who died in an automobile accident early Sunday. Flores was the only teammate who spoke at the service, and he recalled Hancock’s nature as a prankster.\nOrganizers had expected three or four Cardinals to participate, including manager Tony La Russa. They also anticipated that several players would speak after the service.\nInstead, on the advice of center fielder Jim Edmonds, the traveling party of 50 filed onto two buses behind the church and left immediately without talking to the media.\n“What do you want me to say?” general manager Walt Jocketty said before boarding.\nHancock’s sister, Katie, a star athlete at Tupelo High School, called him a “great guy, a great man and a great big brother.”\nHancock’s agent, the scout who signed him to his first pro contract and a high school coach all related memories – many of them prompting laughs – in a mostly uplifting hour-long service at First United Methodist Church.\nHancock’s father, Dean Hancock, wore a red ribbon with the No. 32 – his son’s uniform number – on his left lapel as he read a statement before the service. He took no questions, thanking the media for “respecting our privacy and for respecting Josh’s honor.”\n“Professional baseball players are brothers within a family, and the St. Louis Cardinals players and coaches are bonded together, in my opinion, like no other family in baseball,” Hancock said. “Josh was so proud to be a member of that family.”\nHancock was driving a rented Ford Explorer early Sunday when it crashed into a flatbed tow truck on Interstate 64 in St. Louis. Autopsy results have not been released, and toxicology tests were pending.\nThree days before the fatal wreck, Hancock was involved in a pre-dawn accident in Sauget, Ill., that police treated routinely.\nHancock was buried Wednesday in rural Itawamba County.